1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a display apparatus, and more particularly, to a display apparatus capable of reducing the load of a data driving unit and a method of driving the display apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the development of an information society, demands for various display apparatuses have increased. Accordingly, various flat display apparatuses such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an electroluminescent display (ELD), and a plasma display panel (PDP), have been developed and used in a wide variety of applications. The LCD is widely utilized for various electronic apparatuses because it has excellent picture quality, is thin, light in weight, and has a low power consumption.
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have been the most widely used type of flat panel display device in recent years. LCDs are comprised of two substrates on which a plurality of electrodes are formed and a liquid crystal layer is interposed between the two substrates.
An electric field is generated in the liquid crystal layer by applying a data voltage to pixel electrodes and applying a common voltage to a common electrode. A desired image is obtained by adjusting the electric field to control the amount of light transmitted through the liquid crystal layer. The transmittance and response speed of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer affect the luminance and afterimage property of an LCD and thus need to be controlled in order to improve the picture quality of the LCD. Recently, research has been performed on how to control the intensity and orientation of an electric field applied to pixels of an LCD in which pixels are divided into 2 or more sub-pixels. Each sub-pixel comprises a sub-pixel electrode and sub-pixel electrodes in each pixel may include different switching devices and thus can be provided with different voltages.
In a method of controlling an electric field in liquid crystal molecules using sub-pixels, voltages having opposite polarities with respect to a common voltage are respectively applied to sub-pixel electrodes in each pixel using corresponding switching devices for the sub-pixel electrodes. When the voltages are applied, the period that the corresponding switching devices are enabled decreases 2 or more times as compared to when voltages are applied to pixel electrodes which are not divided into 2 or more sub-pixel electrodes. Thus, data voltages supplied by a data driving unit must be quickly switched from one voltage level to another within a short period of time, thereby placing a huge burden on the data driving unit and increasing the power consumption of the data driving unit. There exists a need for a display apparatus capable of reducing the load on a data driving unit.